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A TRIO OF 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

FRENCH ENGRAVERS OF 

PORTRAITS 

IN MINIATURE 



OF THIS BOOK THERE HAVE BEEN PRINTED ONE 
HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE COPIES ON 
IMPERIAL JAPAN PAPER BEARING THE 
STAMP OF THE JAPANESE GOV- 
ERNMENT MILL AND NO 
LONGER EXPORTED 



A TRIO OF 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

FRENCH ENGRAVERS OF 

PORTRAITS 

IN MINIATURE 








47540 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 




COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY 
WILLIAM LORING ANDREWS 



SECOND COPY, 



INSCRIBED 
TO 

€f)c £ocietp of ^conopPteg 

of 

$eto iorh 

IN RECOGNITION OF ITS EFFORTS 

TO REVIVE THE DECLINING 

ART OF ENGRAVING 



CONTENTS 

I 

Introduction, giving a short ac- 
count OF THE VARIOUS METHODS 
OF ENGRAVING ON METAL 

II 

A Trio of Eighteenth Century 

Frencfi Engravers 

Etienne Ficouet 

Pierre Savart 

Jean Baptiste de Grateloup 

hi 

Extracts from La Calcografia 
of Giuseppe Longhi 

iv 

List of Portraits Engraved by 
Etienne Ficouet 
Pierre Savart 
Jean Baptiste de Grateloup 



WITH EXCEPTION OF THE FOLLOWING, WHICH 

ARE REDUCED IN SIZE, THE PHOTOGRAVURE 

REPRODUCTIONS IN THIS BOOK ARE 

OF THE SAME DIMENSIONS AS 

THE PICTURES FROM WHICH 

THEY ARE TAKEN 

WATER COLOR BY GEORGE H. BOUGHTON. 

PORTRAITS OF 

QUEEN ELIZABETH 

AMELIA ELIZABETH, LANDGRAVINE OF HESSE 

BENJAMIN WEST 

W. WYCHERLY 

PAUL SANDBY 

SAMUEL PUFENDORFF 

MADAME DE MA1NTENON 

ETCHINGS BY 

CHARLES JACQUES AND SEYMOUR HADEN 

AND 
FRONTISPIECE TO " L'EUROPE ILLUSTRE.'' 



LIST OF THE 
ILLUSTRATIONS 



J. B. Bossuet .... Frontispiece 

Engraved by Jean Baptistc de Grateloup 

Title-page vii 

Designed and Engraved by E. Davis French 

On the Banks of the Hudson ... 4 

After Water Color by George H. Boughton 

Niello 5 

By Maso Finiguerra 

Queen Elizabeth 11 

From Geminie's Anatomy, 1559 

Venice 18 

Line Engraving from Rogers' Poems 

Benjamin West 21 

Stipple Engraving 

Landscape with Willows .... 25 

Etching " a l'eau forte pur " by Charles Jacques 

The Towing Path 27 

Dry point by Seymour Haden 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



W. Wycherley 29 

Mezzotint. J. Smith, fecit, 1793 

Amelia Elizabeth, Landgravineof Hesse 34 

Engraved by Ludwig von Siegen, 1642 

Ann Hathaway's Cottage . . . . 37 

Aquatint. S. Ireland, delt. 

Paul Sandby 39 

Stipple Engraving 

Voltaire . 46 

Engraved by Etienne Ficquet 

Samuel Pufendorff 47 

Engraved by Etienne Ficquet 

Marie Antoinette 47 

Engraved by Pierre Savart 

Charles Eisen 51- 

Engraved by Etienne Ficquet 

Madame de Maintenon 55* 

Engraved by Etienne Ficquet 

Frontispiece to " L'Europe illustre " 65 

C. Eisen, inv. 

J. B. Rousseau 71 

Engraved by Etienne Ficquet 

Catinat 75 

Engraved by Pierre Savart 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Fenelon 78 

Engraved by Pierre Savart 

Racine 81 

Engraved by Pierre Savart 

Adrienne Lecouvreur 85 

Engraved by Jean Baptiste de Grateloup 

Dryden 89 

Engraved by Jean Baptiste de Grateloup 

La Fontaine 98 

Engraved by Etienne Ficquet 

Saint Joseph 99 

Engraved by Longhi 

Tail Piece 107 

P. P. Choffard, fecit 



INTRODUCTION 




-iytr?-,, Water <7o for £y Geerye JZ. 3?otep&fern -A'yJ 




The " Baptism of Christ." — Niello ascribed to Maso Finiguerra.* 

WHETHER the art of taking impressions on 
paper from engraved metal plates was 
born and cradled in sunny Italy or in a more north- 
ern and less genial clime, is a question not suscept- 
ible of positive solution, and, like the origin of 
wood-engraving, remains veiled in the mists of 

* From a print in the collection of Mr. Junius S. Morgan. 

5 



INTRODUCTION 

the past. Vasari ascribes the discovery, which 
was only second in importance to that of movable 
metallic types, to Maso Finiguerra, a Florentine 
enameller, goldsmith and worker in niello* (a very 
ancient and beautiful art), who, about the middle 
of the fifteenth century, disclosed the invention to 
his compatriots, Baccio Baldini, Sandro Botticelli, 
and Andrea Mantegna, by whom, especially the 
latter, the new art was developed and advanced 
until it shone forth in full refulgence in the work 
of the great master, Marc Antonio Raimondi. 

John Gutenberg of Mentz, "premier maitre im- 
primeur," printed his Latin Bible, the wonder of all 
succeeding ages, between the years 1450 and 1455, 
so that the transition from engraving on wood to 
engraving on metal followed closely upon, if it were 

* Niello, nielle, a design in black on a surface of silver, as 
that of a plaque, chalice, or any ornamental or useful object, formed 
by engraving the design and then filling up the incised furrows with 
an alloy, composed of silver, copper, lead, crude sulphur and borax, 
thus producing the effect of a black drawing on the bright surface. 
The process is of Italian origin, and is still extensively practiced in 
Russia, where the finest niello is now produced. In many examples, 
conversely, the ground is cut out and inlaid with the black alloy, 
on which the design appears white or bright. — The Century Dic- 
tionary. 

6 



INTRODUCTION 

not co-eval with, the change from wooden blocks 
to metal types for letter-press printing. 

The invention of the art of engraving on metal 
has been accounted for by the " usually inaccurate 
Vasari," as he has been styled, in the following 
manner: By accident a package of damp linen was 
laid upon a silver plate ready to be "niellee," into 
the incised lines of which oil and soot had been 
rubbed in order to show the effect of the work. 
Upon removing the linen its weight and moistness 
were found to have caused the lines of the engrav- 
ing to be accurately reproduced upon it; * and so, 
for this great discovery we are indebted, it may be, 
to the carelessness of a laundry maid. Other writers 
tell us that the "orfevres-nielleurs" were 

* A mold of the engraving was taken in fine earth, and from 
this mold a sulphur cast. This cast was a counterpart of the silver, 
though in another substance. It was rubbed with soot and oil 
until all its cavities were filled with black, and the surface of the 
sulphur being then cleaned, the artist was enabled to see precisely 
what the effect of his silver engraving would be when it should 
come to be filled with black in like manner. This practice led to 
the taking, occasionally, an impression on wet paper from the plate 
itself. This was effected by rubbing the silver with soot and oil 
till all the graved work was filled with it ; then wiping the surface, 
laying on it a piece of damped paper, and rolling it by hand with a 
round smooth roller. — Maberly's " Print Collector." 

7 



INTRODUCTION 

long in the habit of taking impressions from their 
engravings on silver plates before filling them with 
the deep black metallic alloy known as niello. This 
was done at first with fine earth and sulphur, but 
it was found that proofs could be taken upon 
dampened paper, and this ultimately led to the 
invention and use of metal plates for producing 
prints. Like every other art, it was in some measure 
an evolution and in part, no doubt, an accidental 
discovery, and Finiguerra appears to have been the 
fortunate one who was first able to demonstrate 
its utility. 

Germany disputes with Italy its claim to be the 
birthplace of chalcography, and points with the 
finger of pride to the indisputable fact that the cop- 
per-plate as well as the typographic press was 
first in use within her borders. The "ingenious 
and laborious " Baron Heinecken is willing to divide 
the honors, and suggests that, owing to the lack of 
intercommunication between the two countries, the 
art of engraving might have been long practiced in 
Germany and unknown in Italy, and that Finiguerra 
might have discovered the Art without knowing 
that it had already been discovered in Germany. 



INTRODUCTION 

The Abbe Zani, who unearthed the unique proof of 
the first engraving known to have been printed by 
Maso Finiguerra, in 1432,* and the well-known au- 
thorities on ancient prints, Ottley and Bartsch,f how- 
ever, concede the priority of discovery to the Italians. 
The earliest copper-plate engravings extant of 
Teutonic origin are the productions of two anony- 
mous artists, known as the " Masters of 1464, and 
1466 and 1467," but the first engraver to exert a 
marked influence upon the Art was Martin Schoen, 
or Schongauer (born circa 1420, probably at Augs- 
burg), who is by common consent the acknowl- 
edged father of the German school. His contem- 
porary, Michael Wohlgemuth, who may or may not 
have practiced the art of engraving on copper, en- 
joys the all sufficient distinction that he was the 
master, in painting, of Albert Durer, the incompar- 
able burinist, who carried engraving to a "per- 
fection which has since been hardly surpassed," 

*The first impression upon paper of an engraving upon metal 
— a proof of the Paix niellee in 1452 by Maso Finiguerra — was 
discovered at Paris in the Bibliotheque du Roi in 1 797 by the Abbe 
Pierre Zani. Duchesne Aine, " Essai sur les Nielles/' Paris, 1826. 

f Author of " Le Peintre Graveur"and the first to apply the 
word niello to a print from a niello engraving. 



INTRODUCTION 

and brought to the old Burgher city of Nuremberg 
never-fading glory and renown. Wohlgemuth 
was born at Nuremberg in 1434. In conjunction 
with William Pleydenwurff he designed and super- 
intended the engraving of the wood-cuts for the 
Nuremberg Chronicle, the great picture book of 
the middle ages, printed by Antony Koburger in 
1493. 

The new-born Art traveled in leisurely fashion 
to Great Britain and France, and the first English 
copper-plate engraver of whom there is an authen- 
tic account, according to the engraver and antiquary 
George Vertue, was Thomas Geminus or Geminie, 
a printer, publisher, and philomath, as well as an 
engraver, in the time of Henry VIII. who dwelt in 
Blackfriars, London, whence he published "Prog- 
nostications of the weather and Phenomena of 
the heavens with cuts." The earliest engravings 
ascribed to him — "Illustrations to a translation of 
Vesalius' Anatomy" — are dated 1545, forty years 
after Diirer produced his "Adam and Eve." 

The first book printed in England with copper- 
plate illustrations was Richard Jonas' " Byrth of 
Mankynde," published by Thomas Raynalde in 1540, 




Jro/n (Ae Oriot'natEnai-avino in a &>py of Geminies Anatomic le/ongina to'JJTStockionJicKyh 



INTRODUCTION 

and dedicated to Catherine Howard, fifth wife of 
Henry VIII. 

The earliest French publication in which cop- 
per-plates appear is said to be a translation of Bern- 
hard de Breydenbach's celebrated account of his pil- 
grimage to Jerusalem,* entitled " Des Sainctes 
peregrinations de Jerusalem et des lieux circonvois- 
ins, Lyons, 1488," but the illustrations it contains 
were probably engraved in Germany, and the first 
French engraver deemed worthy of mention by 
writers upon the subject was Jean Duvet, sometimes 
called the Master of the Unicorn, who was born at 
Langres, some assert in 1485, others 15 10. Duvet 
or Danet was a goldsmith by profession — a vocation 
which has proved a natural and very customary 
stepping-stone to the practice of chalcography, ever 
since it first led, as we have seen, to the discovery 
of the Art. Duvet engraved the works of Jean 
Cousin, who may be regarded, says Bryan, in his 
"Dictionary of Painters and Engravers," as the 
founder of the French School of Painting. His first 

* For a full description of this remarkable work, which is prob- 
ably the first book of travels ever printed, see Dibdin's " Bibliotheca 
Spenceriana." Vol. Ill, page 216. 

>3 



INTRODUCTION 

occupation was glass painting, and the windows 
of the choir of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris 
are considered his masterpieces. 

Thus it appears that this art for the " multiplica- 
tion of drawings " which brought to the artist in his 
studio a measure of the marvelous reproductive 
power which the Printing Press bestowed upon the 
author and the scribe, flourished for little more than 
four hundred years. The middle of the fifteenth 
century witnessed its rise, the closing years of the 
nineteenth its decline and fall. 

For the ready reference of those who may not 
have a special knowledge of the technique and 
nomenclature of this resourceful reproductive art, 
we append to these few words of introduction a 
description, elementary in character and necessarily 
brief and concise, of the principal methods by 
which prints are produced from engraved metal 
surfaces, and also give the English terms used to 
denote the different styles of engraving and their 
equivalents in French as they have become in a 
measure interchangeable in artistical parlance. 

Line engraving — gravure au burin. Copper- 
plate engraving — gravure entaille douce. 

m 



INTRODUCTION 

This is preeminently the first and the most laborious 
and costly method of engraving on metal, and 
requires the exercise of the greatest patience and 
highest mechanical skill. It may be and generally 
is begun by the etching process, but when this is 
not employed the plate of silver, copper or steel (the 
"age of steel" in engraving, dates only from about 
the year 1823) is first given a surface which is per- 
fectly smooth and highly polished. It is then heated 
and rubbed over with wax so that when cooled it 
is coated with a white film. When the engraving 
was to be of smaller dimensions than the picture 
of which it was to be a translation, the reduction 
was made — before the days of photography, by 
a complicated method of corresponding squares. 
When the engraving is of the same size as the 
original the task is much simplified. A very exact 
tracing, " calq.u e, " of the picture to be copied is 
made with a sharp point upon " papier -glace, " a 
composition of gelatine. This tracing is filled with 
black lead or red chalk, then laid, face down, upon 
the plate and pressed or rubbed with the finger 
until a counter impression upon the prepared surface 
of the plate is obtained. The engraver goes over 

'5 



INTRODUCTION 

with his steel point, the lines of the drawing thus 
transferred, exerting sufficient pressure to penetrate 
the wax and leave the design faintly traced upon 
the metal beneath, or the outlines of the design may 
be marked out by innumerable points or pin holes. 
This accomplished, the wax is melted off the plate, 
the surface cleaned, and the engraver proceeds with 
the burin or graver (a tool which has a lozenge- 
shaped point and makes an angular incision) to 
complete the engraving. The burin is handled in 
various ways, according to the nature of the object 
the engraver desires to imitate, by cross-hatchings, 
undulating or straight lines, and dots in the spaces 
formed by the intersection of these lines. Flat tints, 
such as a cloudless sky or a calm sheet of water, 
may be put in with a ruling machine — a compara- 
tively modern invention, not much in use before the 
present century — which engraves parallel lines either 
straight or curved, as may be desired. Usually 
"the lines are cut through an etching ground, and 
bitten to the required depth with acid." 

Mr. T. H. Fielding, in his very useful work on 
the " Arts of Engraving" gives the following minute 
instructions for handling the burin in line engraving : 

16 



INTRODUCTION 

"In engraving cloths of different kinds, linen 
should be done with finer and closer lines than other 
sorts and be executed with single strokes. Woolen 
cloth should be engraved wide in proportion to the 
coarseness or fineness of the stuff, and when the 
strokes are crossed the second should be smaller 
than the first, and the third than the second. Shin- 
ing stuffs, which are generally of silk or satin, and 
which produce flat and broken folds, should be en- 
graved more hard and more straight than others, 
with one or two strokes as their colors are bright or 
otherwise; and between the first course of lines other 
smaller ones must be occasionally introduced, 
which is called interlining. Velvet and plush are 
expressed in the same manner, and should always 
be interlined. Metals, as armor, etc., are also rep- 
resented by interlacing, or by clear single strokes. 
In architecture, the strokes which form the rounding 
of objects should tend to the point of sight, and 
when whole columns occur, it is proper to produce 
the effect as much as possible by perpendicular 
strokes. If a cross stroke is put, it should be at 
right angles, and wider and thinner than the first 
stroke. The strokes ought to be frequently discon- 

'7 




From Rogers' Poems, Page 95.— Cadell's Edition, London, 1834. 



tinued and broken for sharp and craggy objects. 
Objects that are distant, towards the horizon, should 
be kept very tender. Waters that are calm and still 
are best represented by strokes that are straight and 
parallel to the horizon, interlined with those that are 
finer, omitting such places as in consequence of 
gleams of light exhibit the shining appearance of the 
water; and the forms of objects reflected upon the 
water at a small distance from it, or on the banks of 



INTRODUCTION 

the water, are expressed by the same strokes re- 
touched more strongly or faintly as occasion may 
require, and even by some that are perpendicular. 
For agitated waters, as the waves of the sea, the 
first strokes should follow the figure of the waves, 
and may be interlined, and the cross strokes ought 
to be very lozenge. In cascades the strokes should 
follow the fall and be interlined. In engraving 
clouds, the graver should sport where they appear 
thick and agitated, in turning every way according 
to their form and agitation. If the clouds are dark 
so that two strokes are necessary, they should be 
crossed more lozenge than the figures, and the 
second strokes should be rather wider than the first. 
The flat clouds that are lost insensibly in the clear 
sky should be made by strokes parallel to the horizon 
and a little waving: if second strokes are required 
they should be more or less lozenge, and when they 
are brought to the extremity the hand should be so 
lightened that they may form no outline. The flat 
and clear sky is represented by parallel and straight 
strokes." 

•'It is especially in their exquisite skies," says 
Philip Gilbert Hamerton, "that the line engravers 

<9 



IN T RODUCTION 

are beyond rivalry by etchers." All etched skies 
that he had seen, not excepting the best of Haden 
and Rembrandt and even Claude, are either rude or 
simple in comparison with such skies as the best 
in Rogers' Poems (considered by critics as the 
"high water mark in human attainment"), and 
Plates 63, 66 and 67 in the fifth volume of " Modern 
Painters." " A skillful etcher such as Haden or 
Meryon may give very intelligible hints of the 
mental emotion felt by him in the presence of some 
splendid natural sky, but he cannot render the sky 
itself, the evanescent delicacy of the cloud-forms, 
their melting imperceptible gradations. But the 
engravers have truly made plates of copper yield 
images as closely resembling skies as the absence of 
color and feebleness of art's light may admit of ; 
they have done more than suggest, they have repre- 
sented." 

Stipple — au pointille. This is a very direct 
and comparatively easy process, which fact may in 
a measure account for its early and widespread 
popularity. The outline of the engraving is some- 
times dotted in with a punch and mallet, but the 
dots are more often made with a needle through 




~^*t6ri*f ■j'/uart /?tnjrir 



Ii J-; n.iam i x We st Esq ^ 



INTRODUCTION 

etching ground and afterwards increased in size 
with the graver as the shading requires — and they 
are quite as often executed entirely with the graver, 
frequently with minute cuts in different groupings. 
Stipple engraving is said to have been invented by 
Bylaert, a painter and engraver of Leyden, although 
dotting is to be seen in the works of Albert Diirer 
and other early copper-plate engravers. It was a 
favorite style of engraving with that celebrated and 
prolific Italian artist Francesco Bartolozzi, who car- 
ried it to great perfection, and the style was also 
adopted by a number of our own engravers early in 
this century, many of whose portraits are engraved 
in either pure stipple or in line and stipple. This 
manner, as well as that of its twin brother art, 
Chalk engraving,*— gravure en maniere de 
crayon, was introduced into England by Wil- 
liam Wynne Ryland, a pupil of the celebrated 
French artists Simon Francis Ravenet and Fran- 
cis Boucher, and also of Jacques Philip Le Bas, 

* Chalk engraving is merely the imitation of chalk drawings by 
means of stipple engraving. The grain which the chalk leaves on 
the paper is imitated by irregular dots of varied forms and sizes, and 
the whole process is the same as stipple engraving. — Fielding's 
" Art of Engraving." 



INTRODUCTION 

in whose atelier in Paris he must have been a 
camarade d'ecole of Etienne Ficquet, the French 
engraver in miniature, who is to claim our attention 
hereafter. 

Etching — gravure a l'eau forte. A method 
of engraving first practiced in the early part of the 
sixteenth century, in which the lines are produced 
by the action of a mordant on steel, zinc, iron or 
copper, although generally the latter material is used. 
The plate is covered with a varnish technically 
called a ground, made of asphaltum, wax and pitch, 
evenly blackened with candle smoke. The design 
is drawn with steel needles, varying in size, so as 
to yield broader or fainter lines, which cut through 
the varnish and leave the plate bare where the lines 
have been traced. Acid is then poured on the plate 
and allowed to remain until it has bitten the parts 
exposed to its action to the requisite depth. The 
mordant usually employed in etching on copper is 
nitric acid — aq.ua fort is, but a so-called Dutch 
mordant composed of muriatic acid and chlorate of 
potash is also used. As for the needle, anything, 
says Hamerton, in the shape of a pencil with a 
hard point will do for an etching needle, and 

24 




" Landscape with Willows."— Etching by Charles Jacques. 



Turner, we are told, used the prong of an old steel 
fork. 

A line engraving, it has been said with truth, 
personates the art in her full attire of ceremony and 
state, while an etching shows art at her ease — art in 
deshabille, perhaps, but never a slattern, the author 
of the above sentiment is careful to add. 

Dry Point — A la pointe seche. In this 
simple process, which is but one remove from draw- 
ing on paper with a pencil, the design is scratched 
directly on the bare copper with a tool similar to an 
etching needle. The bur or " barbe " raised by the 
cutting is either left undisturbed to catch the print- 
ing ink and produce an effect which resembles mez- 

25 



INTRODUCTION 

zotint — and "dry point " has been called mezzotint 
inline — or it is removed with a burnisher and the 
incised line left to receive the ink as in the ordinary 
etching process we have just described. As the 
raised lines are but very delicate wiry ridges of cop- 
per they speedily wear away, or, as Georges Du- 
plessis observes in his " Histoire de la Gravure," 
"promptly disappear," and very few good impres- 
sions — not more than twenty-five or thirty at the 
most — can be taken from a "dry point" in which 
the effect depends upon the bur. On the other 
hand, the very earliest impressions may be overladen 
with bur. "Dry point" is frequently employed as 
an auxiliary to etching with acid, and is generally 
spoken of as etching, but strictly speaking it is 
engraving. 

The strong points of etching in comparison with 
other arts, writes Mr. Hamerton in his " Etching and 
Etchers," are its great freedom, precision and power. 
Its weak points may be reduced to a single head. 
The accurate subdivision of delicate tones, or, in 
one word, perfect tonality, is very difficult in etch- 
ing; so that perfect modeling is very rare in the 
Art, and the true representation of skies, which 

26 




feifet 



"The Towing Path."— Dry Point by Francis Seymour Haden. 

depends on the most delicate discrimination of these 
values, still rarer. For the whole art of etching the 
reader is referred to the well-known treatise above 
quoted ; we shall add here only a few lines from 
Mr. Hamerton's work descriptive of the process 
known as soft ground etching. 

"The common etching ground is softened by the 
addition of tallow. It is then covered with a sheet 
of very thin paper upon which the design is drawn 
with a lead pencil. When the paper is removed it 
takes up with it a certain quantity of the ground, 
leaving the copper nearly bare in the lines, the paper 
having caused it to be removed partly, and partly 

27 



INTRODUCTION 

left in a granulated way. The plate is then bitten 
and stopped out in the ordinary manner, and on 
taking a proof it will be found, if the work has been 
properly done, that the impression strongly resem- 
bles the pencil drawing." 

Mezzotint — gravure a la maniere noire, 
or en demi-teinte. This and pure line engrav- 
ing are the aristocrats of chalcography. A pure mez- 
zotint is moreover the nearest approach to nature of 
any of the products of the Arts of engraving, inas- 
much as it presents to the eye masses of light and 
shade, forms without lines. No other art but that of 
painting can render so faithfully as does a mezzotint 
the glow on the cheek of beauty, the soft texture, 
the sheen, and the graceful folds of a lady's gown 
or the brilliant lustre of the armor of her belted 
and " veray parfit gentil knight." An aquatint 
comes next, and is a close second in the depiction 
of landscapes, but in "figures" and "interiors" it is 
far and away surpassed by the mezzotint. 

The ground, so called, in a mezzotint is laid 
with an instrument known as a cradle or rocker, 
"berceau," which ends in a row of fine points 
which are forced into the plate by rocking back and 



INTRODUCTION 

forth, producing no lines, but a continuous mat or 
bur, which when complete would give, if an im- 
pression were taken from the plate in this state, a 
sheet of the deepest black. The scraper— r a c l o i r— 
removes this bur to a greater or less degree and gives 
the various tones required in the shading, and the 
burnisher* is used on the parts which are to show 
as white— the high lights of the engraving. The 
bur or ground is left nearly or quite undisturbed in 
the darkest shadows, and completely removed in 
the highest lights. 

* The processes of burnishing and polishing and their different 
effects upon a plate— one non-injurious, and the other gradually 
destructive— are thus stated by Mr. E. Davis French, who has kindly 
given the writer the benefit of his practical knowledge of the Art of 
Engraving : " Burnishing is done by rubbing the surface of a metal 
with a harder substance which is perfectly smooth and bright, and 
thus forcing down all the little inequalities of the metal to a surface 
as smooth as that which is rubbed against it. Nothing of the metal 
is removed ; the particles which compose its surface are simply 
forced closer together. Polishing is effected by rubbing the metal 
with some fine powder, like flour of emery, tripoli, or rouge, which 
grinds down the metal to smoothness by taking away the surface 
rrlore or less. In printing, the plate is polished with whiting on the 
palm of the hand. It is this, together with the carbon in the ink, 
which gradually wears out a plate, and before the invention of steel- 
facing, materially limited the number of good impressions which a 
copper-plate was capable of yielding." 



1NTR ODUCTION 

Mezzotintoing produces rich, velvety and per- 
fectly uniform tones, ranging from intense black to 
brilliant white, and shows, where desired, the sharp- 
est contrasts between these two extremes. The 
defect in the process, if it be one, is that it does not 
admit of sharp and clear delineation of forms; hence 
in modern mezzotintoing the outlines are some- 
times strongly etched in before the cradle is used and 
texture is given to the plate with the dry point. 
Formerly plates were finished in pure mezzotint and 
most beautiful results obtained — pictures which are 
to this day eagerly sought for by connoisseurs, 
and are among the highest-priced products of the 
engraver's Art. 

The introduction of this style of engraving has 
been erroneously ascribed to Prince Rupert,* but it 
was in reality invented in 1643 by Ludwig von 
Siegen, a lieutenant-colonel in the service of the 
Landgrave of Hesse, and is said to have been sug- 

* Robert de Baviere, born at Prague, 1619, was a nephew of 
Charles I of England, his mother, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of 
James I, having married Frederick V, Elector Palatine and King of 
Bohemia. Prince Rupert passed much of his life as a soldier and 
sailor in England, and fought for the King at Marston Moor. He 
died in London in 1682. 

32 




Amelia TElisabetha.b.g.Massm, LanberaviahJ. 

COM1TISSA MAWOVia MVNTZENS : 

<y/£' .' WiLHELMOWMC HASSI&LAimCS:&jGa<SerausJ2&m 

t. '■[,., , rm nana. Jam Ictiffitune mam txfrasan JfJuMPeotot 



' Jl: Vm : 



7" 



«wg r« 6 o/; Thy cJdIdcxijTj 
Jfy'omt/ieorioinaZJZKgraving /■■■ l/ie possess ion </'. Vr.SuniusS-Mergtan 



INTRODUCTION 

gested by the rust on a weapon a soldier was clean- 
ing. Mezzotint engraving was carried to the high- 
est degree of perfection in England, where, imme- 
diately upon its introduction, it became exceedingly 
popular, as we learn from the diary of John 
Evelyn: 

"March 13th, 1660. 

"This afternoon Prince Rupert shew'd me with 
his owne hands ye new way of graving call'd 
mezzotinto, which afterwards by his permission 
I published in my ' History of Chalcography.' This 
set so many artists on worke, that they soon ar- 
rived to yt perfection it is since come, emulating the 
tenderest miniatures." 

The pictures made by this process are, as we 
have already stated, very soft and mellow; but, like 
a dry-point etching with the bur left on, they soon 
wear away and lose their brilliant chiaro-oscuro 
effects; it is therefore absolutely necessary to secure 
early states of a mezzotintoed plate. It is reckoned, 
says W. G. Rawlinson in his Description and Cata- 
logue of Turner's "Liber Studiorum," that by the 
time twenty-five to thirty impressions have been 
taken from a mezzotint copper-plate, much of its 

3S 



INTRODUCTION 

original effect will usually have been sensibly lost, 
from a double cause — the wearing down of the 
minute raised particles of the copper from the fric- 
tion necessary in cleaning the plate after each im- 
pression is taken, and the roughening of the burn- 
ished surfaces ; the darks are thus lessened in 
intensity and the lights lose their brilliancy, and 
the whole balance of the picture is disturbed. There 
is, however, great variation in copper-plates, owing 
to different degrees of hardness in the metal and the 
care exercised in the printing. 

Aquatint — aquatinte. gravure en mani- 
ere de lavis. An etching process by which 
prints imitating the broad, flat effects of India ink, 
bistre, or sepia drawings are produced. The prin- 
cipal distinction between this method and that of 
etching "a l'eau forte pur" is that spaces are bitten 
as well as lines. 

After the design has been lightly etched, pow- 
dered rosin is sifted upon the plate, which is heated 
slightly so that the particles of rosin may adhere. 
This is the old-time "dry" process. In the liquid 
process a resinous gum is dissolved in spirits of 
wine and poured upon the plate. The alcohol evap- 

36 







>%?wm 


^yp^--^ : _ j 


.. -.-~„, 


~ r^te*^*^^^ 



" House at Shotery, in which Ann Hathaway, the Wife of Shakespere, 
resided." — Aquatint, after Ireland. 

orates, and leaves the rosin spread over the plate 
in minute grains. Acid is then poured gently but 
freely over it, and attacks the copper surface 
through the imperceptible interstices of the rosin, 
producing the effect of a wash of color. Aquatinting 
(as also printing in colors) is said by Jansen to have 
been invented in 1660 by Hercule Zegers, a painter 
of Utrecht, a cotemporary of Paul Potter and pupil of 
Rembrandt. It was practiced by the French Abbe 
R. de St. Non, an amateur engraver in the eighteenth 
century, and was perfected by Jean Baptiste le Prince 
(1733-1781). It was introduced into England by 

37 



INTRODUCTION 

the Father of Water Color Art — as he has been called 
— Paul Sandby (1725-1809). The series of landscape 
plates which Sandby engraved in aquatint after his 
own drawings, attracted the attention of Turner, 
and the first plate for the " Liber Studiorum " was 
engraved in this manner, but a quarrel with F. C. 
Lewis, his aquatint engraver, resulted in the adop- 
tion by Turner of the mezzotint method. 

Aquatinting is a beautiful but difficult process of 
engraving, invented, some one has said, for the 
"torment of man." It was much in vogue for a 
time in the early part of this century, but it has 
never been so extensively practiced as any one of 
the other styles of engraving we have passed in re- 
view. 

Colored prints may be obtained from a copper- 
plate engraving by applying with the finger, a brush, 
or a rag, inks of the desired tints to the different 
parts of the plate (see page 4), but it becomes a 
tedious and expensive operation when an attempt 
is made to use more than two colors. Colored 
prints are also produced by the use of four or five 
plates from which are printed in succession a black 
(or bistre) and the three colors, red, blue and yel- 

?8 




Paul Sandby, Esq. , F. R. A.— Stipple engraving by Pollard. 



low. The difficulty in this process is to register the 
plates by means of points in the margin, so that they 
will print with the extreme exactness required. 

Xylography — g ravure en taille de bois. 
The elder sister of Chalcography. The art which a 
German, Albert Diirer, raised to eminence, and an 
Englishman, Thomas Bewick, restored after its de- 
cline in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

39 



INTRODUCTION 

There is but one method of engraving on wood* 
and it is directly the reverse of engraving on metal; 
one is a cameo, the other an intaglio. In a wood 
engraving the design is cut in relief; whereas in a 
metal engraving it is sunk in incised lines. The 
impression from a wood engraving is procured by 
inking the raised surfaces which form the design, 
and the ink must be thicker than that employed in 
copper- or steel plate printing, in order that it may 
lie upon the surface of the block without filling up 
the hollows. Printing from wood blocks is similar 
to printing from types and is generally done simul- 
taneously, as woodcuts are used principally for 
illustrations in the body of a printed text. In a metal 
engraving the incised lines are filled with ink: the 
plate is then cleaned and polished, and this slow 
and careful manipulation must be repeated after each 
impression is taken. It will thus be seen that printing 
from a copper- or steel plate is a much more tedious 
operation and requires greater care and dexterity 
than printing from a wood block. The durability 

* Sycamore and pear are the woods used for large, coarse cuts, 
and boxwood which has been seasoned from one to two years for 
the finer engravings. 

40 



INTRODUCTION 

of a woodcut is vastly greater than that of any form 
of copper- or steel plate engraving. Jansen, author 
of an "Essaisur l'Origine de la Gravure," Paris, 1808, 
a standard work which we have already quoted, states 
that a plate engraved in line, planche gravee 
a u burin, should give, when the engraving is not 
very fine, from seven to eight hundred good impres- 
sions, according to the quality of the copper. An 
etching, planche gravee a l'eau forte, 
will furnish little more than two hundred good proofs, 
while from a wood engraving an hundred thousand 
impressions may be taken; and he quotes a state- 
ment of M. Papillon in his "Traite de la Gravure en 
Bois" (which is worthy of Baron Munchausen) : 
that one million impressions had been taken from a 
wood block and it was still fit for service. It must 
have been one of the "planks" which the fifteenth- 
century wood-cutters carved with a knife and chisel. 
Lithography — lithographie is a chemical 
and somewhat involved process invented about one 
hundred years ago by a Bavarian, Alois Senefelder, 
the son of an actor at the Theatre Royal at Munich, 
and depends mainly upon the fact that oil and water 
will not mix. The design is drawn upon a compact 

4> 



INTRODUCTION 

fine-grained stone found principally in Bavaria, with 
a crayon which contains grease. The lithographic 
ink adheres to the design drawn with this prepared 
pencil, but is repelled from the wetted parts of 
the stone not covered by it. Lithographic chalk is 
made of common soap, tallow, virgin wax, shellac 
and lampblack, and lithographic ink is composed of 
the same ingredients, but combined in slightly dif- 
ferent proportions. 

These are the principal methods employed up to 
the middle of this century for producing prints from 
engravings on metal, stone and wood. With two 
exceptions — namely, etching and lithography — they 
have fallen, even with the aid of photogenic draw- 
ing, into well-nigh complete disuse, and chalcog- 
raphy without photography as an intermediary, 
may be said, without fear of contradiction, to be a 
lost art, "mort dans les bras du commerce." 



4: 



A TRIO OF 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

FRENCH ENGRAVERS OF 

PORTRAITS 

IN MINIATURE 




Vela Tourpmx 7 ,3t 



E Ftajuet yfculp j y 6 'z 



V LTAIRE, 




t.HStraid M 



/-/ > s- , ■ , .'//^ ,-,/,/f^y'j 



A TRIO OF 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

FRENCH ENGRAVERS OF 
PORTRAITS 

IN MINIATURE 



I 




<sSavr ffftr* J-'. .Crveff 



" Your old men shall dream 

j dreams, and your young men 

1 shall see visions," saith the 

I prophet Joel, and from that 

j olden time to this, the world 

j has witnessed the continual 

| fulfillment of this biblical pre- 

1 diction — but most of the 

world's dreamers never put 

47 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

forth their dreams or disclose their visions for lack 
of the gift of expression. Few of the ethereal 
forms which people the human fancy ever troop 
across the border of the dream land of their 
birth, and so every age has its share of " mute, in- 
glorious Miltons" and voiceless singers who "die," 
— alas! — "with all their music in them." 

This power of expression depends in a measure 
upon physical conditions. It will be conceded that 
a man who is afflicted with Daltonism, and, like 
Charles Meryon, unable to distinguish the ripe fruit 
from the leaves in a cherry tree or a currant bush, 
is not fitted for a painter's avocation, any more 
than he is to hold the throttle of a railway en- 
gine as it rushes through the darkness of the night. 
The proposition is perhaps not quite so simple, but 
we think equally indisputable, that a near-sighted 
man could never execute successfully engravings in 
the broad style of Gerard Edelinck and Robert Nan- 
teuil, or a far-sighted one the spirituelle little fig- 
ures of Jacques Callot and Sebastian Le Clerc, or 
the delicate and highly finished portraits — the bijou- 
terie of engraving — produced by Etienne Fic- 
quet, Pierre Savart and Jean Baptiste de Grateloup, 

48 



ETI ENNE FICQ.U ET 

than whom, says M. Faucheux — author of the "Cat- 
alogue Raisonne ' ' of the works of these myopic 
artists, and the proponent of the foregoing proposi- 
tion — no engraver ever carried so far firmness and 
delicacy of execution. It was the "analogy" of 
the talent of these three engravers in miniature 
which led this accomplished critic "to unite in one 
volume a description of their works." This careful 
study of M. L. E. Faucheux, member of the Archae- 
ological Society of Lorraine, and the exhaustive work 
of Baron Roger Portalis on the French designers and 
engravers of the eighteenth century, are the principal 
authorities which have been consulted by the writer 
in preparing this monograph. 

Etienne Ficqjuet was born in Paris, September 
13, 1 7 19. He was the son of a professor of philoso- 
phy in the University of Paris, and the grandson of a 
goldsmith, from whom he probably received his first 
artistic bent as well as his elementary instruction in 
the art of copper-plate engraving. He was after- 
wards placed under the tuition of George Frederick 
Schmidt, a Prussian engraver, who had come to 
France to perfect himself in his art and in 1742 was 

49 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

received into the Academy at Paris. In 1744 Schmidt 
returned to his native land and was appointed en- 
graver to the king. He died at Berlin in 1775, after 
having achieved a European celebrity through his 
skill as an engraver. 

After the departure of Schmidt from Paris, Fic- 
quet entered the atelier of Jacques Philip Le Bas, a 
pupil of Nicolas Tardieu, and one of the most " in- 
genious artists of his time " in more senses than one 
it would appear. The popularity of his engravings 
brought him many pupils from all parts of Europe 
whose talents were employed — so the story runs — 
in advancing the plates which Le Bas afterwards 
finished and published with his name. In this 
mixed atmosphere of art and artifice, and leading a 
life at times, we are told, un pen desordonne'e, 
Ficquet continued his studies, enjoying the intimacy 
and forming lasting friendships with many of the 
most talented and noted artists of the day. Among 
his fellow students were the two eminent English 
engravers, Robert Strange, and William Wynne Ry- 
land, and the Parisian book-illustrator Charles Eisen, 
whose portrait, prefixed to the second volume of 
the " Fermiers Generaux " edition Amsterdam, 

50 




E. Ftujnet Sculp ij& 



ETIENNE FICQUET 

(Paris, Barbou), 1762, of the " Contes et Nouvelles" 
of La Fontaine, is one of the finest executed by 
Ficquet. The plates in this edition of La Fontaine, 
well known to all book-collectors as one of the most 
exquisite of the livres a figures du XVUl siecle, 
were designed by Eisen and are considered his 
masterpieces. The cuts de lampe are by P. P. 
Choffard, the best, in the opinion of Duplessis, of all 
the French designers and engravers of chapter-heads 
and tail-pieces. The pity of it is that so much 
art and talent was lavished upon a book of this 
character. 

Ficquet never drew his portraits from the life, 
the words delineavit ad vivum are never found 
upon them. Some were taken from paintings, nota- 
bly the portrait of Madame de Maintenon, which, in 
the opinion of Baron Portalis, is the most perfect of 
all Ficquet's works. This beautiful engraving was 
copied from the painting by Pierre Mignard, court 
painter of Louis XIV, which was then in possession 
of the ladies of Saint Cyr, and is now in the Mu- 
seum of the Louvre. 

The French engraver, Nicolas Ponce, who died 
as recently as 1831, knew Ficquet intimately, and 

53 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

relates the following story in connection with this 
portrait of Francoise d'Aubigne, Madame de Main- 
tenon: Ficquet was commissioned by the ladies of 
Saint Cyr to engrave the portrait of their patroness 
and the founder of their institution after the paint- 
ing by Mignard in their possession. The plate was 
nearly paid for, but no portrait appeared, nor was 
there any prospect of its completion. Finally the 
Lady Superior, with permission of the Presiding 
Bishop of the Province, had Ficquet brought to the 
convent, that he might work under her supervision; 
and as Ficquet, it is said, made no progress upon 
the picture when left alone, she was obliged to send 
her nuns or pupils to keep the artist company. The 
picture was finished and already several proofs had 
been taken, when Ficquet, who was not satisfied 
with it, defaced the plate with two strokes of his 
burin. The nuns were in despair, but Ficquet be- 
gan again, and this time the portrait was completed 
to his satisfaction and "that of all the world." 
What has become of this planche biffee or the proofs 
drawn from it is a query to which M. Faucheux 
can give no answer. He believes that they still ex- 
ist and will some day be discovered. 

54 




•h <».,../ ,-„ 



Graff yar'ETicyttft ch Jjfy 



ET1ENNE FICQUET 

Another anecdote narrated by Ponce illustrates 
Ficquet's lack of prudence and business sagacity— 
those homely and practical virtues with which no 
child of genius was ever known to be superabun- 
dantly endowed. He had succeeded to an inheri- 
tance, and on the strength of this accession to his 
fortune, purchased a property near the village of 
Montmartre, in the suburbs of Paris; but before the 
deeds were ready for delivery, he had dissipated his 
newly acquired wealth in other and foolish (?) ways. 
Improvident, however, as Ficquet may have been in 
this instance, he certainly was not guilty of reckless 
extravagance when he purchased at the Varranchon 
sale in 1777, two drawings in bistre (9x14 inches in 
size), by the great Fragonard, for 900 and 800 francs 
respectively. He could not have made a safer in- 
vestment of his /out's d'ors than he did when 
he exchanged them for these precious bits of paper. 
The most of Ficquet's engravings were from por- 
traits already engraved and according to Georges 
Duplessis they are not even faithful copies, but the 
comparisons we have ourselves been able to insti- 
tute between Ficquet's portraits and those by Drevet 
and others after the same originals, do not lead to this 

57 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

conclusion. Their principal claim to distinction is, 
however, undoubtedly the beauty and microscopic 
minuteness of their execution. Ficquet has been 
styled the Gerard Dow of engravers for the elabor- 
ate and perfect finish of his plates. In a figure only 
a centimetre high, says Baron Portalis, Ficquet draws 
as many lines as Drevet or Nanteuil in a folio-sized 
print. " He engraved in little, but he was a great 
engraver." 

Ordinarily, in a copper- or steel plate engraving, 
the artist first draws his design upon paper and then 
transfers it to the prepared metal surface ; but Ficquet 
designed directly upon the copper and then traced, 
with an extremely fine point, the outline of the por- 
trait. In the trial proofs some of these lines are so 
faint as scarcely to be perceptible with the naked 
eye. It was by repeatedly retracing these lines 
with the graver (eight to ten times) that the effect 
which the artist desired was finally produced; new 
lines were seldom added. M. Faucheux states that 
he had several times counted the lines in a first and 
fourth impression of a plate of Ficquet without being 
able to discover the least variation in their number 
or disposition, and had spent hours in fruitless 

5« 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

search for a material difference between two impres- 
sions of the same engraving, until upon bringing 
them close together it became evident that the plate 
had been retouched. 

It is not invariably the case — we are cautioned 
by this painstaking student of these " miracles of 
patience and almost incredible dexterity " — that the 
first state of a plate by Ficquet is the one to be 
selected as the best, but the one the artist judged to 
be the most satisfactory, and frequently this might 
be one of the later states of the plate. 

Such minute work of the burin, in the execution 
of which, says an eminent engraver of another na- 
tionality, the instrument scarcely touches the surface 
of the copper and the artist holds his breath and 
almost stops the pulsations of his heart, required a 
tranquil environment, and in order, says M. Fau- 
cheux, to insure as far as possible the quiet of his 
studio, Ficquet betook himself across the Seine to 
lodgings in the rue du petit Vaugirard, behind the 
Luxembourg gardens, one of the most peaceful and 
retired quarters of Paris; and whenever a vehicle 
rumbled past his door he intermitted his labor for 
fear that the vibrations communicated to the house 

59 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

would cause his hand to swerve from the line he 
wished to trace. It appears to have been stillness and 
repose, not the seclusion of "a life monastic," that 
he sought, according to Ponce's story anent the fair 
members of the community of Saint Cyr. 

The rich and graceful borders which, after the 
fashion of the day, surround many of Ficquet's por- 
traits, and add so much to their pictorial effect, were 
generally engraved first, and are not always by Fic- 
quet himself. Some are by Pierre Philip Choffard, 
others by Charles Nicholas Cochin, an artist of equal 
merit. The French designers and engravers of the 
eighteenth century frequently combined their talents, 
and worked in co-partnerships of twos and threes. 
Comparatively few artists designed and engraved a 
portrait and its entourage, and finished a plate from 
first to last. 

Ficquet's first engravings were executed, while 
he was still under the tuition of his master, Schmidt, 
for Michael Odieuvre, an energetic and enterprising 
Norman who came to Paris and engaged in the busi- 
ness of print selling. In 1738 he began the publica- 
tion of a most ambitious work, namely, a collection 
of portraits (a number of which, notably those of 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

the early Kings of France, are of course fictitious) 
of the "great men of all times and all countries." 
As time passed on these engravings were turned 
to a variety of uses, and good, bad and indiffer- 
ent impressions of the plates have now for many 
years formed the stock in trade, and a seemingly 
inexhaustible supply of material for print shops the 
world over. These portraits have been brought to 
this country by the thousand ; and as a matter of 
record and a guide to the American collector of 
French prints, we devote a generous portion of the 
space at our disposal to M. Faucheux's collation of 
this publication of Odieuvre, and his narration of the 
fortunes, or rather misfortunes, which subsequently 
befell these fine engravings. The numerous and 
diversified paths which open their alluring vistas 
before the eager eyes of book and print collectors 
appear smooth and safe, but for the most part they 
are devious ways, lined with pitfalls and ending in 
labyrinths, out of which, unless there is a guiding 
thread within his reach, the wanderer has small 
chance of escape. 

In 1738, when the first of these portraits ap- 
peared, Odieuvre was living at the quai del'Ecole, 

61 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

vis-d-vis la Samaritaine. The portraits which were 
published with this address are signed by the good 
engravers and designers of the time — Eisen, Bale- 
chou, Poilly, Wille, Schmidt and his scholar Ficquet. 
All the first proofs are before the address and are 
very fine and rare. Those which come after the 
address of " quai de I'Ecole vis-a-vis la Samaritaine 
d la Belle Image ' ' are still very beautiful. About 
1745 Odieuvre went to live in the "rue d'Anjou, 
la derniere porte-cochere a gauche, entrant par la 
rue Dauphine au premier ' ' ; he then removed to 
the " rue des Mathurins cbe% M. Jombert." The 
impressions which bear these addresses are still re- 
garded as "good enough." At last, in 1755 — the 
year preceding his death — Odieuvre was domiciled 
in the "rue des Postes, cul-de-sac des Vignes." 
The impressions with this address are feeble, while 
those which were published after Odieuvre's death, 
with the address effaced, are of no value whatever. 
The plates had become entirely too passe. 

These portraits were printed upon four different 
papers, to wit, in folio, " Nom de Jesus " (the water 
mark), only thirty impressions; in quarto, "grand 
raisin " (royal), fifty impressions ; in quarto, 

62 



ETIENNE FICQUET 

" carre" (square), and finally in octavo, " Nom de 
Jesus." It is known, also, that towards the last 
Odieuvre made use of old plates by Thomas deLeu, 
Leonard Gualtier, Michael Lasne, Mellan and Ede- 
linck. Any old copper-plate appears to have been 
good enough for his purpose, and his book finally 
became a grand melange of prints, ancient and 
modern — a sort of pictorial pot-pourri. 

At first these portraits were not accompanied by 
text; later they were used to illustrate different 
works, such as the " Histoire universelle de De 
Thou," " Les Memoir es de Co mines, " " Les Mem- 
oir es de Conde, " " de Sully, " " dela Ligue, " etc. It 
was not until 1755 that they were reunited in vol- 
umes accompanied by a text written by the French 
advocate, Dreux du Radier, and published under 
the title " L' Europe illustre, contenant I' histoire 
abregee des Souverains, des Princes, des Prelats, des 
Ministres, des grand Capitaines, des Magistrals, des 
Savans, des Artistes, et des Dames Celebres en 
Europe, dans le XV e Steele compr is, jusqu' a pre- 
sent. Par M. Dreux du Radier, Avocat. Ouvrage 
enrichi de Portraits, par les soins du Sieur Odi- 
euvre a Paris cbei Odieuvre, rue des Posies, cul- 

63 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

de-sac des Vignes, Faubourg Saint Marceau, 

MDCCLV." 

This publication continued until 1756, when it 
was stopped by the death of Odieuvre. It then em- 
braced six volumes containing six hundred portraits, 
all of which are weak impressions, although some 
are worse than others. There is another edition 
with the same date (1755), in which an attempt was 
made to distract attention from the feebleness of the 
portraits by surrounding them with historical bor- 
ders engraved by Babel. As these borders were 
considered " far from being a title to nobility " the 
dealers generally removed them and left the por- 
traits without margins. Finally in 1777 the book- 
seller Nyon Vahie, added a new frontispiece (a re- 
duced copy of which appears upon the opposite 
page) and published the work avec approbation et 
privilege du Roi. The impressions in this edition 
are naturally still worse than those in the edition of 

1755- 

The portraits of Odieuvre, therefore, exist in six 

different states, as follows : 

First State. Before all letters. 

Second State. With the address of " quai de I'Ecole, vis-d-vis la 
Samaritaine d la Belle Image." 

64 




USarrtKjurSc, 



'' / ;w^y^ c v C 'V> '^^/'.-//c J$%u<£foe"/777. 



ETIENNE FICQUET 

Third State. With the address of the "rue d'Anjou, la derni- 
ere porte-cochere a gauche, entrant par la rue Dauphine 
au premier "and also that of " rue des Mathurins che{ M. 
Jombert." 

Fourth State. With the address of the "rue des Postes, cul-de- 
sac des l^ignes." 

Fifth State. With the ornaments of the engraver Babel added in 
passe-partout. 

Sixth State. The address effaced.* 

Here we have the inside history of the Odieuvre 
coilection of portraits. It is the old familiar story: 
most copper-plates, and wood blocks as well, have 
been pressed into service until they were worn to 
mere phantoms of their former selves, then retouched 
and furbished up and started off upon a new career 
to entrap the careless and unwary. The reveren- 
tial care with which some of the Parisian publishers 
of engravings shield and cherish in their infirm old 
age these remnants of former vigor and beauty ex- 
cites our unfeigned admiration. 

Ficquet died December n, 1794, at the age of 
seventy-five. He produced one hundred and sev- 
enty-five different portraits, namely, thirty-four for 
Odieuvre, thirty-nine various, and one hundred and 

* All the portraits of Odieuvre do not exist in six states, but 
most of the engravings by Ficquet should have them. 

67 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

two "little marvels" for La vie des peintres Flam- 
andes Allemands et Hollandais, avec des portraits 
graves en taille douce by J. B. Descamps. Published 
at Paris cbe^ Charles-Antoine Jombert, librairc du 
roi pour I'artillerie et la genie, rue Dauphine, a 
I 'image de Notre Dame mdccliii, 4 vols, in 8vo. 

The four volumes were not published simul- 
taneously, the last not until 1763. In consequence 
the first volumes were somewhat worn and perhaps 
partially destroyed when the last two appeared, so, 
in order to make the work uniform throughout, 
Jombert reprinted the first two volumes which con- 
tained thirty-two portraits engraved by Ficquet. 
Here is another wheel within a wheel, and collectors 
must seek the first two volumes of this work which 
bear the early date, and avoid the reprint of 1763, in 
order to secure good impressions of all the prints. 
The copper-plates of this collection of portraits 
were in existence in 1864 and probably are still. 

Many of Ficquet's copper-plates (retouched from 
time to time), in addition to those in the Odieuvre 
and Descamps series, are still in the hands of Pari- 
sian book and print sellers, where they have been 
lodged ever since impressions from them were of- 

68 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

fered for sale in 1777, at three francs each, by Prevost, 
graveur, rue St. Thomas, pres la porte Saint-Jacques; 
and modern ' ' restrikes " from a number of the most 
desirable — or, as an extra illustrator of books would 
say, useful — portraits, such as those of La Fontaine, 
Rousseau. Montaigne and Descartes, may conse- 
quently be made as thick in Paris as peas in a pod 
or autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa whenever a de- 
mand for them arises. 

Pierre-Francois Basan, author of the Dictionnaire 
des Graveurs Anciens et Modemes (Paris, 1789), 
possessed a varied assortment of plates engraved by 
celebrated artists (among them some by Ficquet and 
Savart), a round half hundred of which he inserted 
in his work to give an idea, as he says, of the tal- 
ent of these various engravers; but he considerately 
offers the book for sale with or without these 
illustrations. As they are mostly naught but "faint, 
shadowy semblances " of pictures, the amateurs, 
de bon gout of those days doubtless availed them- 
selves of this option and took the work sans 
gravures. Of all sad things in graphic art, one 
of the saddest is a print from a worn out copper- 
plate. Engraved plates never grow old gracefully. 

6q 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

"Time writes wrinkles on their brows " and " crops 
the roses from their cheeks," and the finer and more 
beautiful they are in their first state, the poorer and 
more decrepit they become in the last. A broadly 
and deeply cut plate will, of course, not show wear 
and tear like one composed of delicate lines, and 
so long as it endures will present a comparatively 
respectable appearance. 

Good early impressions of Ficquet's engravings 
with full lettering can be procured for from forty to 
fifty francs each, except the portraits of La Fontaine 
and Moliere, which, on account of the popularity of 
the subjects, are somewhat higher priced. Proofs 
lettre grise (open letter) bring from seventy-five to 
one hundred francs. Needle proofs, i. e., with the 
name of the artist only scratched in with the needle, 
are valued at from two to three hundred francs, and 
trial proofs (eau forte pur) four to five hundred 
francs. If, however, we are correctly informed in 
regard to Ficquet's peculiar manner of engraving, 
we do not quite comprehend how there can be any 
eau forte pur, strictly speaking, of his prints. 

More than one-half of the one hundred and sev- 
enty-five portraits engraved by Ficquet are of Dutch, 

70 




slrtt/ PmaSt ?<?(*' 



TiCquef <t'caty> i7</i 



PIERRE SAVART 

French and Flemish artists, among them, Berchem, 
Brauwer, Gaspard de Crayer, Denner, Gerard 
Dow, De Heem, Houbraken, Van Huysum, Van 
Mieris, Mignard, Netscher, Rubens, Jan Steen, 
Terburg, Teniers (David le jeune), Vander Velde 
and Wouvermans. The list includes the names of 
only four Englishmen by birth and of two by adop- 
tion, viz. : Pope,* Addison, Steele and Swift, Van- 
dyke and Kneller. 

At this late day it would be difficult, if not im- 
possible, to bring together at any cost a complete 
collection of fine early impressions (and no others 
of any artist are worth the trouble of collecting) of 
Ficquet's engravings. The little oval of Louis XV 
would almost certainly be unattainable. It was en- 
graved on silver for the Almanach Parisien of Barbou 
and was an excessively rare print a generation ago. 

Pierre Savart. Concerning this artist neither 
M. Faucheux nor Baron Portalishave much informa- 
tion to impart. In the Biographical Dictionaries he is 
curtly dismissed with a paragraph of half a dozen 

* Engraved, as were also those of Addison and Steele, to illus- 
trate a French edition of the "Spectator" published in Paris in 
'754-5- 

73 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

lines, and M. Duplessis tells us that- were it not for 
his portraits of Nicolas de Catinat and Madame Des- 
houlieres, which are drawn with a certain skill, we 
might entirely ignore the name of this engraver. 
Poor fellow! what a narrow escape he had from ob- 
livion. 

Savart was born in 1737, at Saint- Pier r e de 
Thimer en Thimerais, departement d' Eur e-et- Loire, 
and came to Paris, the Mecca of all aspiring artists, 
at the age of seventeen. Three years later he made 
what possibly may have been a love match, but 
which has very much the appearance of a manage 
de convenance, with a demoiselle of the mature age 
of thirty-four, who was the proprietress of a little 
print shop in the rue Saint-Jacques. In 1764 we 
find Savart himself established in business in the 
rue de Cluny as a marchand d'estampes, having 
in the meantime acquired a knowledge of the art 
of engraving. He was a follower, an imitator 
and a copyist of Ficquet, but broader in his man- 
ner of treatment; his portraits of Liebnitz and La 
Fontaine are indifferently executed copies of the 
engravings of those celebrities made by Ficquet. 

Savart's first engraving, dated 1765, of which 

74 




r-^ 




J. Pwi-.n . P,r„r ffravurt /:. i /,; ,/,//, rr, p San arc fzulpjyyi 

jPartA Che^t Lauteuf DBOTUTt s/c f-ori',' abb 



PIERRE SAVART 

there is thought to be but one impression in exis- 
tence, was a portrait of Jean Jacques Rousseau, 
"the clock maker's son from Geneva." This por- 
trait, says M. Faucheux, is lacking in all the quali- 
ties of a good engraving except firmness of hand. 
The portraits which follow this first essay of Savart 
show more and more the influence of Ficquet, the 
strokes of his burin becoming finer and firmer. In 
the "Louis XV" and the "Racine "the lines are 
of such wonderful fineness, writes Baron Portalis, 
that they resemble mezzotints and require a magni- 
fying glass to distinguish the marks of the burin. 
In 1 77 1, Savart adopted a new manner and the face 
in his portrait of Fenelon is made entirely with dots 
or stippled (au pointille), in imitation probably of 
the " artist amateur " Grateloup, whose remarkable 
engravings had lately appeared and set all Paris agog 
with wonder and curiosity. 

In Savart's portraits of Bossuet, Colbert and 
Boileau (which last is considered by Portalis as his 
masterpiece comme fermete) the lines are extremely 
fine and these plates are his highest achievements 
as an engraver. About the years 1775 to 1778 his 
eyesight, it is presumed, began to fail, and the 

79 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

portraits which he engraved from this time on go 
from bad to worse; so poor indeed do they become 
in the estimation of M. Faucheux that he considered 
it probable that they were executed by his sister — 
as were all the heavy — "balourd" — borders of his 
later portraits — and simply retouched by him. 

Savart engraved thirty portraits besides the 
plates of " Diane et Endymion " and three views of 
Paris. These portraits were all engraved in the 
fifteen years between 1765 and 1780, and include, 
among others, in addition to the Louis XV, Racine, 
Bossuet, Colbert and Boileau above mentioned, 
portraits of Louis de Bourbon Prince de Conde, 
Fenelon, Nicolas de Livry, Catinat, Bayle, Richelieu, 
Buffon, Rabelais, La Bruyere, the Mme. Deshou- 
lieres with its unusually fine encadrement and the 
exceedingly rare and minutely executed bustes of 
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, declared by M. 
Faucheux to be impossible of execution without 
the eyes of Ficquet (see page 47)- 

In 1780 "the restless wandering " Savart was 
living within bow-shot of the Cathedral of Notre 
Dame at the Hotel Cbamou^et sur le quai Saint- 
Bernard, having changed his place of abode six 

80 




5 ■.,■■' 1'lllr 



A'cwu CkdL HAuteur B arrive de. JTontara2>-ie. 



J E AN- B APTISTE DE GRATELOUP 

times in about twice as many years. Here all traces 
of him are lost and he disappears from our view as 
completely as if, wearied, disheartened, and an- 
ticipating Georges Duplessis's unfavorable verdict 
upon his art, he had plunged into the sullen waters 
of the river which flowed past his dwelling, and 
been carried by its current into the cavernous depths 
of the sea. 

Jean-Baptiste de Grateloup, a French savant 
" who practiced engraving simply for amuse- 
ment" and the most gifted and accomplished 
of this trio of engravers in petit format, was born 
February 25, 1735, of noble parentage, at Dax, an 
old Roman town in the Pyrenees, near Bayonne, 
noted since ancient times for its hot saline baths 
and still a resort for invalids. Grateloup re- 
ceived his education at the college of the " Barn- 
abites" in his native town, and upon the com- 
pletion of his studies in 1757, removed to Bordeaux. 
In 1762 he repaired to Paris, where he not only 
practiced with signal success the arts of painting, 
sculpture and engraving, but became a busy man 
of affairs and the head of a large establishment 

83 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

which dealt in jewelry and precious stones. The 
engraving of the nine portraits which constitute the 
entire product of his burin was merely a pastime in 
which he occasionally indulged, and it is estimated 
that he employed only six months of ordinary labor 
in engraving them all. 

Like Ficquet, Grateloup was myopic; but unlike 
that fortunate individual, whose natural force con- 
tinued unabated to the end of his days, and whose 
last portrait — that of Ariosto — engraved when he 
was seventy-five years of age, is as good as his first, 
Grateloup was compelled to abandon the practice of 
the art of engraving in early life, on account of a 
cataract which deprived him of the sight of one of 
his eyes. The last strokes of his burin were the 
finishing touches upon his " Bossuet, en pied," en- 
graved in 1 77 1, when he was thirty-five years of 
age, and when we examine this portrait, writes 
Georges Duplessis, we are not surprised to learn 
that the engraver died blind. This affliction did not, 
however, oblige Grateloup to abandon immediately 
all artistic pursuits. He modeled with exquisite 
skill in wax, painted enamels which rivaled those of 
Petitot, and designed the rich parures which his 

84 




\H<°/?}-esented in t/ar role or COfiACEL/A in Ccrncillt!s'3fc-rT dc'I'<?r,ipe<?"Ac( VScerieJ- 



J E AN-BAPTISTE DE GRATELOUP 

cunning artisans wrought out for the "curled and 
powdered" beauties of that luxurious age, who 
demanded the most elegant and artistic articles 
of personal adornment that taste and talent could 
produce and money command. 

Grateloup's process of engraving, which is and 
will always remain a mystery, appears to have in- 
volved the use of aquatint, mezzotint, line and " dry 
point," and some parts of the plate, it is said, were 
hammered. The secret was confided to his nephew, 
Dr. J. P. S. de Grateloup, under a promise, which 
was faithfully observed, that it should never be di- 
vulged, and it died and was buried with him. If 
a fundamental principle of all true art is to conceal 
art, then Grateloup met the requirement in an ex- 
ceptional manner. 

It is surmised that the engravings were done 
upon steel instead of copper, and that the process 
was a rapid one. They were printed with a spe- 
cially compounded printing ink, and it is believed 
that the printing, especially in those parts of the 
plate which were lightly engraved, required extreme 
care, and in fact presented even greater difficulties 
than the process of engraving. Grateloup is sup- 

87 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

posed to have drawn all the impressions himself, 
aided by his nephew, in some of the later tirages of 
his plates, as in all Paris, it was said, he could not 
find a printer able to print them to his satisfaction. 
Perhaps he did not search very assiduously, and 
preferred to make the composition of the ink and 
the manipulation of the plate as profound a secret as 
he kept his unique process of engraving. 

Grateloup's first plate was a portrait of Cardinal 
Polignac; his last and finest (and the only one with 
which he was himself entirely satisfied) that of 
" Bossuet, en pied," an engraving which is a veri- 
table tour de force, and for minuteness and delicacy 
of execution has never been equaled. So high an au- 
thority as Baron Roger Portalis does not, it is true, 
share with the connoisseurs of Paris their unbounded 
enthusiasm for Grateloup's engravings, or believe 
that they display "all the genius of the Graphic 
Art." He regards them as decidedly inferior to 
those of Ficquet, and chiefly interesting as the essays 
in art of an amateur who produced remarkable 
effects by a new and curious process; but never- 
theless he is obliged to admit that Grateloup's full- 
length portrait of the great orator and dignitary of 

88 




1 



©fiYil 



J E AN- B A PTISTE DE GRATELOUP 

the French church, Jacques Benige Bossuet, Bishop 
of Meaux, is a marvelous piece of engraving. 

M. Duplessis coincides with Baron Portalis and 
is equally chary in his commendation of Grateloup's 
engravings. Basan, on the contrary, who was 
probably quite as good a judge as either of the others, 
although perhaps not an entirely disinterested one, 
eulogized them in unmeasured terms and M. Joly, 
keeper of the prints in the Bibliotbeque Imperiale, 
declared them to be unique and unapproachable 
examples of engraving in miniature which would 
hold a distinguished place among the chefs d'ceuvres 
which were the glory of the collection in his keep- 
ing. We quite agree with M. Faucheux that such 
an opinion from one who understood so thoroughly 
the art of engraving, leaves no room for doubt as to 
the merit of J. B. de Grateloup as an engraver, and 
that it is a waste of time to attempt to refute those 
who find no other value in his portraits except their 
rarity. It becomes a matter of opinion and of taste, 
and Doctors in Art as well as in Philosophy will 
disagree to the end of time. 

Before the Revolution and the Reign of Terror 
threw their dark shadows over the gay capital city 

91 



A TRIO OF FRENCH ENGRAVERS 

and drove the Fine Arts into temporary banishment, 
Grateloup had probably left Paris and altogether 
abandoned artistic pursuits, as no work of his hand 
is known to have been executed later than the year 
1784. He never married, and in a state of single 
blessedness lived well on into the present century 
resting on the laurels he had won, and died in 1817 
at the ripe old age of eighty-two in the ancient 
walled town of Dax* where he was born. 

We have the word of Grateloup's nephew and 
confidential assistant that the plates which his uncle 
engraved were either lost or destroyed. No modern 
impressions from the original plates should there- 
fore exist and probably do not — vague rumors to 
the contrary notwithstanding; but there is no telling 
by what clever modus operandi they may have been 
imitated by some Parisian contrefacteur. 

The original proofs of Grateloup's engravings 
were never offered for sale, but were presented by the 
artist to his friends, as were also his exquisite enamels 
and beautiful cameos. The set of nine portraits of 
the premier tirage^wd in bon etat are now valued at 

* The City of Aquoe. In French, ville d' Acqs. Corrupted to 
d'Ax, thence Dax. — Lippincott's Gazetteer. 

92 



J E AN- B APTI S TE DE GRATELOUP 

twelve to fifteen hundred francs and even more. 
The " Bossuet, en pied" alone in proof state is worth 
five to six hundred francs. 

The following is a chronologically arranged list 
of the portraits engraved by Grateloup. Of each 
plate there are two to four different states. When 
the impressions are upon papier de chine the paper 
is generally double : 

1765. Cardinal de Polignac, after Rigaud, in i2mo 



1765. 


John Dryden, 


' Kneller ' 


i 11 


1766. 


J. B. Rousseau, 


' Aved ' 


1 it 


1767. 


Fenelon, 


' Vivier ' 


( (1 


1768. 


Adrienne Lecouvreur, ' 


' Coypel ' 


1 8vo 


1768. 


Montesquieu, ' 


' Dassier ' 


' 121110 


1769. 


Descartes, 


' Hals 


i 1 1 


1770. 


Bossuet, en buste, 


' Rigaud ' 


( c t 


1771. 


Bossuet, en pied, 


< tt i 


' 8vo 



No portraits of Ficquet, Savart or Grateloup are 
known to exist, and the artists whose facile hands 
fixed in "the glorious permanence of art" the line- 
aments of so many of their fellow men were too 
modest and retiring, it would seem, to leave "effi- 
gies " of themselves to satisfy the natural and par- 
donable curiosity of an admiring world. 



93 



EXTRACTS FROM 

"LA CALCOGRAFIA" 

OF GIUSEPPE LONGHI 

MILANO 1830 




EA Rinalt 




S . GITTi 



, X ' 



ETIENNE FICQUET 

BORN AT PARIS ABOUT 
1731 (OR I7I9), DIED 
AT SAME PLACE I 794 

" If the supreme 
delicacy of a neat 
and well directed 
stroke constitutes 
in itself the true 
merit of an en- 
graving, we may 
safely assert that 
Etienne Ficquet 



In M,u in he 1 in presso D.Artana 1812 

of perfection. 
Among the many little portraits, engraved by him 
entirely with the burin, are a number which particu- 
larly attract and delight the amateur, and are a source 
of marvel to connoisseurs and objects of despair to 
imitators and copyists. The most wonderful of all, 
almost superhuman for its extremely delicate out- 
lines, is the portrait of La Fontaine. Viewed through 
a convex magnifying glass which doubles or even 
quadruples its dimensions, the lines will still appear 

99 
> o*C. 



liTIENNE FICQUET 

clearly and firmly cut: To the strongest and most 
myopic naked eye they are, in many instances, 
absolutely imperceptible. The head, in accordance 
with the fashion of those times, is covered by an 
immense wig, in which the curls and tufts of hair 
falling upon the shoulders and chest are of most 
natural softness and splendor. Around the neck is 
a tie of the finest linen most elaborately treated and 
remarkable for the almost invisible thinness of the 
lines and points by which it is formed. The face (no 
larger than the nail of my index finger) is designed, 
or, more correctly speaking, modeled with the ut- 
most veracity : the mezzotint parts being produced 
by points in the style of the best chalcographists, 
while the shaded dark parts are produced by con- 
tinuous and equidistant cuts. But a real miracle of 
art which the non-professional could neither detect 
nor comprehend, is the truly incredible care and 
dexterity with which the eyes have been engraved : 
In the etchings of Woollett may be found points of 
aqua fortis larger than these pupils, and yet in so 
small a space Ficquet had the courage to introduce 
six lines around the iris the width of which occupy 
more than a third of the pupil itself, and he turned 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

these lines smoothly, restricted them gradually, 
tapered them off toward the luminous point, and 
recentered them in the same scarcely visible grooves, 
without allowing them to interfere one with the 
other. 

"Who can tell the great amount of work and 
labor which such microscopic things (compared to 
which the human fingers appear colossal) must have 
cost the artist who executed them, if a simple de- 
scription of them has given me so great and difficult 
a task ? Perhaps some connoisseur and lover of art 
will accuse me of indulging in too many trilling de- 
tails: but it will certainly not so appear to one who 
has — like me— tried to engrave if not with the same, 
with approximate fineness. He only can appreciate 
its worth. He knows what a lynx eye is required 
even with the help of the magnifying glass, and how 
the magnifying glass produces discomfort and in- 
convenience during the work should it be too con- 
vex. He knows well that a hand, if not of the 
steadiest, could certainly never succeed in placing 
the point of the burin at the required equidistance 
between one cut and another, much less trace those 
incomprehensible grooves in engraving where the 



ETIENNE FICQUET 

graver scarcely touches the surface of the copper, 
and the artist, during the operation, holds his breath 
and almost stills the pulsation of his heart in his 
anxiety to avoid a weak or trembling hand. He 
knows that the temper and sharpness of steel which 
will suffice in ordinarily delicate engraving are in- 
sufficient for the fineness of a stroke of so high 
degree: and realizes the necessity of reducing the 
burin to a more pointed, keener edge, which re- 
quires a point of stronger temper (often difficult to 
obtain) and infinitely thinner and finer, so that it 
will neither bend nor break easily. 

"This remarkable fineness and accuracy of work 
in the beautiful portraits of Ficquet produce upon 
the eyes a most pleasing effect: they have what may 
be called a velvety shade, and no other manner of 
engraving could produce a like effect. It is the 
triumph of the graver, and of the graver only. A 
line bitten with aqua fortis in the middle of such 
work would be like a coarse thread of wool upon a 
fine silk cloth. . . . 

"Therefore, I repeat, if the delicacy of a stroke 
or line constitutes in itself the whole merit of an 
engraving, then Ficquet must be considered first 



ETIENNE F1CQ.UET 

among the firsts. But in one respect his portraits, 
being merely careful repetitions (in smaller propor- 
tions) of engravings or etchings of former masters, 
do not possess chalcographical originality; and in 
another respect such a very minute stroke, while 
appropriate to small busts, would be entirely out of 
place in figures of larger dimensions. Consequently, 
while he may not be the first in complex engrav- 
ing, he is certainly unrivaled, unique and wonderful 
in one most difficult branch of the art. 

"The portrait of La Fontaine, about which I have 
spoken at such length in this article, is undoubtedly 
the finest engraving by Ficquet, although amateurs 
often award the first place to those of Madame de 
Maintenon, Rubens and Van Dyck. But the La 
Fontaine portrait is verily the test by means of which 
to comprehend the superiority of engraving by the 
burin over all other methods of engraving ever in- 
vented. In the beginning printing was done by 
engraving solely with the burin; then followed the 
use of aqua fortis, helpful to the burin in the prepara- 
tory steps, but almost incapable of standing by it- 
self. Then, with aqua fortis, the graver and the 

103 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

point, a method was introduced to imitate lead 
pencil. This system was called engraving al gran- 
ite (stipple), and produced very elegant prints, es- 
pecially those from the hand of Bartolozzi and some 
others of his rank; but, naturally, they could not be 
compared to engravings with the burin in taglio 
dolce {taille douce), as they lack art and faithfulness 
of pictorial representation. . . . 

" I will not speak of the mezzo-tinto engravings 
(so liked and admired, especially by amateurs), 
which system was brought to the greatest perfec- 
tion by Richard Earlom; nor of the aquatints (by 
which, in Paris, principally through the merit of 
Jaset, great and beautiful prints were produced), 
because, compared with the best productions of the 
burin, they impress one as monotonous and lacking 
chalcographical vivacity. 

"It remains only to speak of the lithographic 
system, invented in recent years and widely adopted 
throughout Europe for its apparent facility ; and on 
account of this very facility any designer presumes 
himself to be an engraver without previous prepa- 
ration. A wrong presumption this, however, be- 
cause a special and peculiar training is absolutely 

104 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

necessary on account of the difference between pa- 
per and stone, between the common lead pencil and 
the lithographic pencil (the pencil especially adapted 
to the lithograph). 

" This system has made remarkable progress, 
due more to the perseverance of the printers in their 
efforts to succeed than to the ability of the designer; 
the most beautiful lithographs reach the acme of 
perfection when they succeed in producing the same 
effect as a good chalcographic print in granito (stip- 
ple) ; but as stipple can never emulate the graceful 
copper-plates of Wille, Balechou, Drevet and, least 
of all, those by Ficquet, therefore no other method of 
engraving, especially the lithograph, could aspire to 
reach the qualities of the portrait of La Fontaine. 
Yes, I repeat, especially the lithograph; and this is 
not the fault of the artist, but of the method. En- 
gravers will easily understand this. In the chalco- 
graphic impression, when — after having filled the 
lines engraved on the copper with printing-ink — 
you burnish with the hand the surface of the metal, 
a light shade always remains in the mezzo-tinto and 
darker parts; that shade renders the lines more soft 
and harmonious. In the lithographic impression 

105 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

the interstices between the lines and the points re- 
main always pure white — the white of the paper 
entirely uncovered. Another defect (not of the 
lithograph, but of the lithographic artist) is the fol- 
lowing: The chalcographer, in taking proofs of his 
work, uses them to direct him in giving the final 
touches, diminishing or increasing the tints; the 
lithographer, on the contrary, having obtained his 
first proof, can only, with the stroke of the burin, 
subdivide any point heavier than required, but he 
cannot add anything. Therefore, it being impossi- 
ble to produce in his work the necessary harmony, 
he is compelled to resort to innumerable retouch- 
ings of each print. For this reason lithographs, 
when finished, are more expensive than the nature 
of the work would lead one to suppose. When 
La Fontaine's portrait can be copied by lithography 
in such a manner that, seen at a distance, it may 
appear for a moment the original by Ficquet, I 
will at once advise my pupils to abandon chal- 
cography and devote themselves entirely to the 
art of lithography; and, moreover, I will do the 
same." 

The writer is indebted for assistance in this trans- 
106 



ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

lation from the Italian of Longhi, to General L. 
P. di Cesnola, Director of the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art. 




107 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

ENGRAVED BY ETIENNE FICQ.UET 

Addison, Joseph. Engraved for a French edition of "The Spec- 
tator." 

Apellans (Les). Portraits of the four Bishops of Mirepoix, Montpel- 
lier, Senez and Boulogne, seated at a table. Only the heads 
are engraved by Ficquet. 

Ariosto, Ludovico. Engraved for an edition of " Orlando Furioso " 
published by Baskerville, 1775. 

Ariosto, Ludovico. A smaller reproduction of the above. 

Arland, Jacques-Antoine. Published by Descamps, IV, p. 116. 

Auvergne, Charles de Valois, Comte d'. Published by Odieuvre. 

Backhuizen, Ludolf (Louis). Descamps, II, p. 443. 

Balen, Henri Van. Descamps, I, p. 237. 

Balue, Cardinal Jean. Odieuvre. 

Beck, David. Descamps, II, p. 313. 

Berchem, Nicolas. Odieuvre. 

Berghem, Comeille (same portrait as above, with another inscrip- 
tion). Odieuvre. 

Bernard (Due de Saxe-Weimar). Odieuvre. 

Bernier, Nicolas. Odieuvre. 

Bernouilli, Jean. Odieuvre. 

Beze, Theodore de. 

Bisschop, Jean de. Descamps, III, p. 184. 

Block, Joanne Koerten. Descamps, III, p. 273. 

1 1 1 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Boileau, Nicolas Despreaux. 

Boomer), Arnold. Descamps, IV, p. 137. 

Bossuet, Jacques Benigne. 

Brandenburg, Jean. Descamps, IV, p. 23. 

Brandmuller, Gregoire. Descamps, IV. p. 3 1 . 

Broussel, Pierre de. Odieuvre. 

Brauwer, Adrien. Descamps, II, p. 128. 

Bruin, Corneille de. Descamps, III, p. 297. 

Charles XII. Odieuvre. 

Chabannes, Antoine de. Odieuvre. 

Charles Frederic III. Odieuvre. 

Chaubert, Ludovicus. 

Chaulieu, Guillaume Amfrie de. Odieuvre. 

Chennevieres, De. 

Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Engraved to illustrate an edition of Ci- 
cero's " De Amicitia," published by Barbou, 1771. 

Coques, Gonzales. Descamps, II, p. 262. 

Corneille, Pierre. N. B. — E. Gaucher made a good copy of this 
portrait and Droyer a very bad one. 

Courayer, Pierre Francois le. Odieuvre. 

Crayer, Gaspard de. Descamps, I, p. 350. 

Crebillon, Prosper Jolyot de. 

Denner, Balthasar. Descamps, IV, p. 253. 

Descartes, Rene. 

Deyster, Louis de. Descamps, III, p. 336. 

Dortous de Mairan, Jean Jacques. Published at Geneva, 1 74S. 

Dow, Gerard. Descamps, II, p. 216. 

Dujardin, Karl ou Karel. Descamps, III, p. 111. 

Dullaert, Heiman. Descamps, III, p. 47. 

Dumolin, Charles. Odieuvre. 

Dunz, Jean. Descamps, III, p. 175. 

Duquesne, Abraham. Odieuvre. 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Duval, Robert. Descamps, III, p. 172. 

Dyck, Antoine van. Descamps, II, p. 8. 

Eeckhout, Gerbrandt van den. Descamps, II, p. 327. 

Eisen, Charles. Engraved for a frontispiece to the 2nd vol. 

" Contes de la Fontaine," Amsterdam, 1762. 
Elias, Mathieu. Descamps, III, p. 377. 
Estrees, Gabrielle d'. Odieuvre. 
Everdingen, Albert van. Descamps, II, p. 319. 
Faes, Pierre van der. Descamps, II, p. 256. 
Fagon, Guy Crescent. Odieuvre. 
Farnese, Alexandre. Odieuvre. 
Fenelon, De Lamothe. Published in 1 778 and sold by Ficquet for 

3 francs. 
Flavigny, Francois Paul Jerome de Geps de. 
Flinck, Govaert. Descamps, II, p. 246. 
Fontaine, Jean de la, 1 . Copied by Macret, reversed ; also by La 

Chaussee. 
Fontaine, Jean de la, 2. Engraved for a frontispiece to the 1st 

vol. " Contes de la Fontaine," Amsterdam, 1762. 
Fontanges, Duchesse de. Odieuvre. 
Genoels, Abraham, lejeune. Descamps, III, p. 92. 
Harcourt, Comte de (Henry de Lorraine). Odieuvre. 
Heem, Jean David de. Descamps, II, p. 37. 
Helmont, Zeger Jacques van. Descamps, IV, p. 236. 
Heist, Bartholme on Barthelmey van der. Descamps, II, p. 199. 
Hoet, Gerard. Descamps, III, p. 232. 
Hondekoeter, Melchior. Descamps, III, p. 44. 
Hondius, Abraham. Descamps, III, p. 280. 
Hoogstraten, Jean van. Descamps, II, p. 407. 
Hoogstraten, Samuel van. Descamps, II, p. 383. 
Houbraken, Arnold. Descamps, IV, frontispiece. 
Huber, Jean Rudolph. Descamps, IV, p. 125. 

>'3 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Huysmans, Corneille. Descamps, III, p. 241. 
Huysum, Jean van. Descamps, IV, p. 229. 
Kalf, Guillaume. Descamps, II, p. 431. 
Kneller, Godefroid. Descamps, 111, p. 22s. 
Kupetzki, Jean. Descamps, IV, p. 95. 
La Cour, Jacques de la. 
La Cour, Michel de la. 

Lairesse, Gerard de. Descamps, III, p. 101. 
Le Vayer, F. De la Mothe, 1 . 
Le Vayer, Francois De la Mothe, 2. 
Lanfranc. Odieuvre. 

Liebnitz, Godefroi Guillaume. Published at Geneva, 1745. 
Lingelbach, Jean. Descamps, II, p. 372. 
Louis V. Odieuvre. 
Louis VII. Odieuvre. 

Louis Quinze. Engraved for the "Almanach Parisien de Barbou. 
Maimbourg, Louis. Odieuvre. 
Maintenon, Francoise d'Aubigne, Marquise de. 
Melder, Gerard. Descamps, IV, p. 280. 
Merian, Marie Sibylle. Descamps, III, p. 200. 
Meulen, Antoine Francois van der. Descamps, III, p. i. 
Miekis, Francois van. Descamps, III, p. 13. 
Mieris, Guillaume van. Descamps, IV, p. 4s. 
Mignard, Pierre. Odieuvre. 
Miramion, Marie Bonneau, Dame de. Odieuvre. 
Moliere, Jean Baptiste Poquelin de. 
Montaigne, Michel de. 
Moor, Charles de. Descamps, III, p. 328. 
Moucheron, Isaac. Descamps, IV, p. 153. 
Muret, Marc Antoine. 

Musscher, Michel van. Descamps, III, p. 181. 
Myn, Hermann van der. Descamps, IV, p. 24s. 

114 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Netscher, Theodore. Descamps, IV, p. 38. 
Oost, Jacques van. Descamps, III, p. 55. 
Orley, Richard van. Descamps, III, p. 300. 
Ossat, Amaud d'. Odieuvre. 
Ovens, Jurien. Descamps, II, p. 279. 
Overbeck, Bonaventure van. Descamps, IV, p. 7. 
Pare, Ambroise. Odieuvre. 
Plas, David van der. Descamps, III, p. 213. 
Pool, Rachel Ruisch van. Descamps, IV, p. 65. 
Pope, Alexandre. See Addison and Steele. 
Prevost, Antoine Francois. Odieuvre. 
Pucelle, Rene. Odieuvre. 

Pufendorff, Samuel. Engraved for his " History of the Uni- 
verse." 
Pynaker, Adam. Descamps, II, p. 317. 
Regnard, Jean Francois. 

Rickaert, David, Le Jeune. Descamps, II, p. 233. 
Rigaud, Hyacinthe. Odieuvre. 
Robert XXXVl e Roy de France. Odieuvre. 
Rokes, Henry, surnamed Zorg. Descamps, II, p. 322. 
Rombouts, Theodore. Descamps, I, p. 425. 
Roore, Jacques de (called Rorus). Descamps, IV, p, 262. 
Roos, Jean Henri. Descamps, IV, p. 437. 
Roos, Philippe. Descamps, III, p. 319. 
Rousseau, Jean Baptiste. 
Rousseau, Jean Jacques. 
Rubens, Pierre Paul. Descamps, I, p. 297. 
Rugendas, Georges Philippe. Descamps, IV, p. 78. 
Saugrain, Guillaume Claude. 
Savery, Rolant. Descamps, I, p. 293. 
Schalken, Godefroy. Descamps, III, p. 138. 
Silva, Jean Baptiste da. 

115 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Steele, Richard. This plate, with those of Pope and Addison, 
was made for a French edition of " The Spectator." 

Steen, Jean. Descamps, III, p. 26. 

Swift, Le Docteur. Engraved for a work upon the life and writ- 
ings of Swift by the Count d'Orreri. 

Teniers, David le jeune. Descamps, II, p. 153. 

Terburg, Gerard. Descamps, II, p. 123. 

Terwesten, Augustin. Descamps, III, p. 24s. 

Terwesten, Mathieu. Descamps, IV, p. 144. 

Tideman, Philippe. Descamps, III, p. 369. 

Tillemans, Simon Pierre (sumamed Schenk). Descamps, II, p. 
123. 

Torenvliet, Jacques. Descamps, III, p. 121. 

Toulouse, Louis Alex de Bourbon, Comte de. Odieuvre. 

Vade, Jean Joseph. 

Vaillant, Jacques. Descamps, II, p. 405. 

Vaillant, Wallerant. Descamps, II, p. 331. 

Vavasseur, Guillaume. Odieuvre. 

Velde, Adrien van den. Descamps, III, p. 72. 

Verkolie, Jean. Descamps, III, p. 257. 

Verkolie, Nicolas. Descamps, IV, p. 168. 

Verschuring, Henri. Descamps, II, p. 394. 

Vinne, Vincent van der. Descamps, II, p. 417. 

Virgile. Engraved for an edition of his works. 

Voet, Charles Bosschaert. Descamps, IV, p. 158. 

Vollevens, Jean. Descamps, III, p. 251. 

Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet. 

Voorhout, Jean. Descamps, III, p. 207. 

Vuez, Arnold de, or Van Wez. Descamps, III, p. 125. 

Waser, Anna. Descamps, IV, p. 202. 

Weenix, Jean. Descamps, III, p. 164. 

Weenix, Jean Baptiste. Descamps, II, p. 306. 

116 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Werdmuller, Jean Rudolf. Descamps, III, p. 85. 
Werf, Adrien van der. Descamps, III, p. 383. 
Werner, Joseph le Jeune. Descamps, III, p. 61. 
Wildens, Jean. Descamps, I, p. 336. 
Wolters, Henriette. Descamps, IV, p. 272. 
Wouverman, Philippe. Descamps, II, p. 286. 
Wulfraat, Mathieu. Descamps, III, p. 218. 
Zacht-Leeven, Herman. Descamps, II, p. 146. 
Zacht-Leeven, Corneille. Descamps, II, p. 195. 

LIST OF PORTRAITS 

ENGRAVED AND PUBLISHED BY 
PIERRE SAVART 

Alembert, Jean le Rond de. 

Bayle, Pierre. 

Bernis, Francois Joachim de Pierre. 

Boileau, Nicolas Despreaux, 1. 

Boileau, Nicolas Despreaux, 2. 

Bossuet, Jacques Benigne. 

Bruyere, Jean de la, 1. 

Bruyere, Jean de la, 2. 

Buffon, George Louis Leclerc, Comte de. 

Catinat, Nicolas de. 

Chevert, Francois de. 

Chaulieu, Guillaume Amfrie de. 

Christian VII, King of Denmark and Norway. 

Colbert, Jean Baptiste. 

Conde, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de. 

Deshoulieres, Antoinette de la Garde. 

Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de Lamotte. 

Fontaine, Jean de la. 

117 



LIST OF PORTRAITS 

Fontenelle, Bernard de. 

Leibnitz, Godefroi Guillaume. 

Livry, Nicolas de. 

Louis, Le Grand. 

Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre. 

Louis Auguste (16th), King of France. 

Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. 

Montalembert, Marc Rene Mis de. 

Montesquieu, Charles Secondat de. 

Rabelais, Francois. 

Racine, Jean. 

Richelieu, Armand du Plessis, Cardinal de. 

Rousseau, J. J. 

Stanislas, Roi de Pologne. 

Tasso, Torquato. 



NDEX 



INDEX 



Addison 
Aquatint 
Aquatinte . 
Au pointille . 

Babel . . 

Baldini, Baccio 

Balechou 

Barbou, "Almanach 

sien " 
Bartolozzi, F. 
Bartsch . 

Basan, Pierre-Franco 
Bayle . . . 
Berchem 
Bewick, T. . 
Boileau . 

Bossuet 79, 80, 84, 
Botticelli, Sandro 
Boucher, F. . 
Brauwer 

Breydenbach, B. de 
Bryan, " Dictionary ' 
Buffon . . . 
Bylaert . 



Callot, Jacques 
Catinat, Nicolas 



73 

• 36 

• 3* 
20-23 



. 64 
6 
62, 105 
Pari- 

• 73 
23, 104 

9 
69, 91 



• 73 

• 39 
79,80 

9i, 9 2 , 9} 
6 

2 3 
73 
'3 
'3 



2 3 



Cesnola, Gen. L. P. di 
Chalk engraving 
Choffard, P. P. . . 
Claude .... 
Cochin, C. N. . 
Colbert 

Conde, Prince de 
Copper-plate engraving 
Cousin, Jean 
Crayer, Gaspard de . 

De Heem 

Denner .... 

Descartes 

Deshoulieres, Madame 



Dow, Gerard 
Drevet . 
Dry den, J. . 
Dry Point . 
Duchesne Aine, 

les Nielles " 
Duplessis, G., ' 

la Gravure," 

Diirer, Albert 
Duvet, Jean 



107 
23 

53, 60 
20 
60 

79, 80 
80 

14-20 
'3 
73 

73 

73 

6 9, 9} 

73, 80 



74, 80 Earlom, R. 



• • 58, 74 

• 57, 58, 105 

• • • 93 
. . 25, 26 
" Essai sur 

" . " . " 9 

Histoire de 

26 , 53, 57, 
74, 83, 84, 91 

• • 9, 23, 39 

• ■ '3, '4 

104 



INDEX 



Edelinck, G. . . 48, 63 
Eisen, C. . . . 50, 62 
Engraving. Origin and early 

history . . . .5-14 
Engraving. Description of 

various processes '4-42 

Etching . 24, 25, 41, 103 
Evelyn, J., " Diary," . 35 

Faucheux, M. L. E. 49, 54, 61, 

73, 19, 80, 91 

Fenelon . . 79, 80, 93 

Ficquet, Etienne 24, 48, 49-73, 

95-106, 109-1 17 

Birth and Education 49 

Plates to La Fontaine 

50, 53, 99->03 

Portrait of Madame de 

Maintenon . . 55, 56 

Anecdotes of 53, 54, 57 

Methods and character 

of his work . 57—59 
Series of portraits pub- 
lished by Odieuvre 60-67 

Death .... 67 

Portraits engraved by 67 

Market value of prints 70 

Longhi's estimate of 

95-106 
List of portraits en- 
graved by . . 109-1 17 
Fielding, T. H. "Art of 

Engraving " . . 16, 23 
Finiguerra, Maso . 6, 8, 9 
Fragonard . . . . 57 
French, E. Davis . . 31 



Gaultier, Leonard 



^ 



Geminus, Thomas . . 10 
Grateloup, Jean-Baptiste de 

48, 83-93 

birth and education 83 

secret process used by 87 

portraits engraved by 88 

opinions of critics on 

his work . . 91 

death .... 92 

market value of prints 92 

list of portraits en- 
graved by . .• . 93 
Grateloup, J. P. S. de 87, 92 
Gravure a la maniere noire 28-36 
Gravure a la pointe seche 25, 26 
Gravure a l'eau forte 24, 25, 41 
Gravure au burin '4-20, 41 
Gravure en demi-teinte 28-36 
Gravure en maniere de 

crayon .... 23 
Gravure en maniere de lavis 

36-39 
Gravure en taille de bois 39-41 
Gravure en taille douce 14-20 
Gutenberg, John . . 6 

Haden 20 

Hamerton, P. G. 19, 24, 26, 27 
Heinecken, Baron . 8 

Houbraken .... 73 

Jansen . . . . 37, 41 

Joly 9' 

Jombert, Charles-Antoine, 68 
Jonas, Richard . . . 10 

Koburger, Antony . . 10 
Kneller 73 



& D 3? 



INDEX 



La Bruyere .... 80 Nyon 64 

La Fontaine 53, 69, 70, 74, 

99-103, 105 Odieuvre, Michael . 60-67 

Lasne, Michael 6} Ottley 9 

Le Bas, Jacques Philip 24, 50 

Le Clerc, Sebastian . . 48 Papillon, "Traite de la 



Lecouvreur . 

Leibnitz 

Leu, Thomas de 

Lewis, F. C. 

Line engraving . 



93 Gravure en Bois " . 41 

74 Petitot 84 

63 Pleydenwurff, William . 10 

38 Poilly 62 

14-20, 41 Polignac ... 88, 93 



Lithographie 41, 42, 104-106 Ponce, Nicolas . 53, 57, 60 

Lithography 41, 42, 104-106 Pope, 73 

Livry, Nicolas de . . 80 Portalis, Baron Roger 

Longhi, G., extracts from 49, 53, 58, 73, 79, 88, 91 

" La Calcografia " 95-106 Potter, Paul ... 37 

Louis XV ... 7?, 79 Prevost 69 

Louis XVI .... 80 Prince, Jean Baptiste le 38 

Maberly, J., " Print Col- Rabelais .... 80 

lector" .... 7 Racine . . . . 79, 80 

Maintenon, Madame de 53, 54, Radier, Dreux de . . 63 

103 Raimondi, Marc Antonio . 6 

Mantegna, Andrea . . 6 Ravenet, Simon Francis . 23 

Marie Antoinette . . 80 Rawlinson, W. G., "Turner's 

Mellan 03 ' Liber Studiorum ' " . 35 

Meryon, Charles . 20, 48 Rembrandt ... 20, 37 

Mezzotint . . 28-36, 104 Richelieu .... 80 

Mignard, Pierre . . 53, 73 Rogers, S., " Poems" . 20 

Moliere 70 Rousseau, J.J. . 6o, 79, 93 

Montaigne .... 09 Rubens . . . 73, 103 

Montesquieu ... 93 Rupert, Prince . . 32, 35 

Morgan, Junius S. 5 Ruskin, J., "Modern 

Painters "... 20 

48, 58 Ryland, William Wynne 

73 23, 50 



Nanteuil, Robert 

Netscher 

Niello . . . 

Nuremberg Chronicle . 10 



St. Non. Abbe R. de 



37 



123 



INDEX 



Sandby, Paul 
Savart, Pierre 



. . 38 
48, 6 9> 73-83 



Swift, 



Birth and marriage . 74 

First engraving by . 74 

Adopts a new manner 79 

Work deteriorates . 79 

Portraits engraved by 80 

List of portraits en- 
graved and published by 

117, 118 
Schmidt, George Frederick 

49, 50, 60, 62 



Schoen, Martin . 
Senefelder, Alois 
Siegen, Ludwig von 
Soft ground etching 
Steele . 
Steen, Jan . 
Stipple . 

Stockton-Hough, Dr 
Strange, Robert . 



20-23, 



9 
4' 

32 
27 

73 
73 
104 
1 1 
50 



Tardieu, Nicolas 
Teniers, D. . 
Terburg 
Turner, J. M. W 

Vander Velde 
Van Dyck . 
Van Huysum 
Van Mieris . 
Vasari . 
Vertue, George 



23 



. . 50 

• • 73 

• • 73 
25, 35, 38 

• • 73 

• 73, '°3 

• • 73 

• • 73 

• .6,7 

10 



Wille .... 62, 105 
Wohlgemuth, Michael . 9, 10 
Wood engraving 39-41 

Wouvermans ... 73 

Xylography 39—41 

Zani, Abbe .... 9 
Zegers, Hercule . . . 37 



ERRATA 

Page 36, line 17: for a l'eau forte pur, read a I'eau 
forte pure. 

Page 68, line 2 : for Flamandes read Flamands. 
Page 70, lines 18 and 22 : for pur read pure. 



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